The present invention relates to an apparatus and method useful in fiber or tow cutting operations for optimizing and accurately setting the cutting gap of a fiber cutting assembly.
The present invention is adapted for use in cutting continuous filaments or tow with a fiber cutting assembly such as manufactured by the Lummus Company and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,120 to Keith and U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,481 to Van Doorn et al, herein incorporated by reference. Such a cutting assembly has a cutter reel with a plurality of radially spaced apart, outwardly facing cutting blades and a presser roll mounted adjacent to the cutter reel and having a peripheral surface positioned at a predetermined distance from the outwardly facing edges of the cutting blades to define a cutting gap.
Typically, setting the gap of such a cutting assembly has been done using a rubber block squeezed between the cutting blades and presser roll, and visually determining how deep the blades are cutting and whether the depth thereof indicates a proper gap setting. As is readily apparent, this approach is largely dependent upon the skill of the operator, and is subject to error due to the rubber compressibility and crack propagation in the rubber block, and to blade sharpness.
The present invention eliminates much of this inaccuracy and human error by utilizing a gauge and electrical sensing device to automatically indicate with a signal when the proper gap setting has been achieved by sensing contact of the gauge with the presser roll.
Electrical sensing devices have been employed in a variety of cutting devices. Exemplary devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,609 to Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,554 to Gregory, III, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,142 to Parker. These devices, however, have not utilized the sensing device acting cooperatively with a fiber cutting assembly of the type having a cutter reel and a presser roll mounted adjacent to the cuttier reel.